Speech and Language Info

I spent years wondering what is wrong is there something the specialists are missing. The autism question always hung over my head – I was scared of it but also unclear about what it meant. I knew something else is going on here?

My son has a severe language delay but he has some very strange behaviour that we always just said that’s him – that’s just the way he is. What I thought was just a hearing problem that would be rectified with grommets was so much more.

Hearing was rectified

Once the grommets were inserted my understanding was he would just catch up – and in some instances this probably is true but my son had so many other things going on. We needed to join the dots on them.

Admittedly an Ear Nose Throat (ENT) specialist gave me this information which I believed to be the truth and it was possible. All I needed was a good speech therapist to assist us and he would catch up. Hmmmmm I wish it was so simple.

We did persist with speech but it was clear even with his glue ear symptoms relieved and 100% hearing, he still couldn’t process language well at all, there was something else going on. He could hear but his brain didn’t process what he heard, and then recall it very well at all.

Getting the right diagnosis

Both his receptive and expressive language skills were very poor. With the help of physiologist, occupational therapy and pediatrician assessments they supported his diagnosis of it being a Severe language disorder delay/Auditory Procession Disorder and not autism. We do believe he sits in a very grey area of the spectrum but he doesn’t display all the traits explicitly of an autistic child.

Funding Specialists to get the required diagnosis

Speech can cost a lot of money, and we really didn’t have it but Medicare did assist and the working with children with autism federal government initiative more recently does help with most of the payments. Ask your Paediatrician if you are not aware of this. (Upcoming article on funding what you are entitled for more information)

Yes it costs money, and they all come with hefty fees but without these reports and assessments I’d still have a lot of my questions unanswered.

Cheers,

Sandra

Kids Speech Matters

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Hi Sandra,
My son is 8 years of age and he was asessed today at school. The outcome being, Severe Language Disorder. As daunting as it sounds, it’s one of the better ones to have… I just need to finda ways of better helping at home. We are not alone, there are just so many kids with SLD…
Michelle